The Portrayal Of Love In The Once And Future King

The word “love” has many different ways it can be portrayed. An individual can be very loving towards others, or one can be in love with a significant other. Love is a very important aspect of life. People often forget to love, and instead hate others, and disapprove of each other. In the book, “The Once and Future King”, rivalry and war is often shown instead of love. There are only a few characters in this book who show what love really is, and Guenever was one of them. Guenever was a woman who was kind to anyone she met. She even had a few love interests, as she was in love with Sir Lancelot and King Arthur. They both loved her to death, and Lancelot even described her in a very nice way, “like a woman who had grown a soul” (White 570). Guenever helped spread the love throughout the characters in the book, even when there was sorrow and grief going on around her.

At the beginning of the story, Merlyn figured out that Guenever would be King Arthur’s wife since he knew what the future held. After Guenever and King Arthur met and fell in love, she also quickly fell in love with Sir Lancelot, one of King Arthur’s best friend. This love triangle was kept secret for a while, and Arthur did not even find out about it for a long time. The reader could often question why Guenever was such a kind woman, but kept her affairs going for so long. She always stayed calm, and kept peace. Even when Sir Lancelot told her that King Arthur found out about their relationship, she said to Lancelot, “Lancelot, I am not going to have you talking about Arthur if he were a go between” (White 547). She wanted to keep peace between the men, and she did not want their relationship to be broken. There were many people in the story who were fighting with each other and Guenever always wanted to make sure that there was not any extra fighting, so would try to maintain order between